4.  Ms Valentyna Mykolayivna Mykhaylenko was born in 1951. Mr Valentyn Andriyovych Mykhaylenko was born in 1944. Mr Grygoriy Stanislavovych Ganushevych was born in 1950. Mr Anatoliy Ivanovych Marchenko was born in 1952. Ms Oleksandra Romanivna Yudenok was born in 1948. Mr Vasyl Mykhaylovych Myshko was born in 1945. Mr Vasyl Kindratovych Bezpalko was born in 1958. Ms Galyna Stepanivna Zorenko was born in 1939. Mr Grigoriy Pavlovych Arkhitko was born in 1960. Mr Volodymyr Mykolayovych Litskevich was born in 1956. Mr Mykhaylo Pavlovych Tyshchenko was born in 1949. All the applicants live in Chernigiv, Ukraine.
5.  Between 1997 and 2001 the applicants instituted separate sets of proceedings in the local domestic courts, seeking the recovery of salary arrears and other payments from their former employer, the State-owned company Atomspetsbud, which had carried out construction work at Chernobyl within the zone that had been compulsorily evacuated (see paragraphs 29-30 below).
6.  By a decision of the Novozavodsky District Court of Chernigiv of 14 April 1998, Ms Valentyna Mykhaylenko was awarded 4,849 hryvnas (UAH) in salary arrears and other payments. She received UAH 173.58 on 7 February 2000 and UAH 76.09 on 17 October 2001. However, the judgment remains largely unenforced, the outstanding debt being UAH 4,599.33 (the equivalent of 707.59 euros (EUR)).
7.  By a decision of the Novozavodsky District Court of Chernigiv of 15 December 2000, Mr Valentyn Mykhaylenko was awarded UAH 10,479 in salary arrears. By another decision of the same court on 16 April 2002, he was awarded UAH 2,710 in compensation for the delay in the payment of the salary arrears. The judgments remain unenforced, the total debt amounting to UAH 13,189 (the equivalent of EUR 2,029.08).
8.  By a decision of the Novozavodsky District Court of Chernigiv of 13 July 1998, Mr Grygoriy Ganushevych was awarded UAH 7,394 in salary arrears. He received UAH 219.37 on 21 January 2000 and UAH 116.03 on 18 August 2000. However, the judgment remains largely unenforced, the outstanding debt being UAH 7,058.60 (the equivalent of EUR 1,085.94).
9.  By a decision of the Novozavodsky District Court of Chernigiv of 11 September 1997, Mr Anatoliy Marchenko was awarded UAH 4,528 in salary arrears. By another decision of the same court on 19 September 2001, he was awarded UAH 9,671.75 in compensation for the delay in payment of those arrears. He received UAH 1,000 on 17 February 1998, UAH 126.29 on 7 February 2000 and UAH 55.27 on 20 October 2000. However, the judgments remain to a large extent unenforced, the outstanding debt being UAH 13,018.19 (the equivalent of EUR 2,002.80).
10.  By a decision of the Novozavodsky District Court of Chernigiv of 18 November 1998, Ms Oleksandra Yudenok was awarded UAH 5,664 in salary arrears and UAH 883 in compensation for the delay in their payment. On 7 February 2000 the applicant received UAH 234.37. The judgment remains largely unenforced, the outstanding debt being UAH 6,312.63 (the equivalent of EUR 971.17).
11.  By a decision of the Novozavodsky District Court of Chernigiv of 24 March 1999, Mr Vasyl Myshko was awarded UAH 8,130 in salary arrears, but only UAH 418.62 were paid to him. The judgment remains to a large extent unenforced, the outstanding debt being UAH 7,711.38 (the equivalent of EUR 1,186.37).
12.  By a decision of the Novozavodsky District Court of Chernigiv of 17 April 2001, Mr Vasyl Bezpalko was awarded UAH 14,764 (the equivalent of EUR 2,271.38) in salary arrears. The judgment remains unenforced.
13.  By a decision of the Novozavodsky District Court of Chernigiv on 4 February 1999, Ms Galyna Zorenko was awarded UAH 6,596 in salary arrears. She received UAH 236.12 on 7 February 2000 and UAH 103.51 on 10 November 2000. However, the judgment remains largely unenforced, the outstanding debt being UAH 6,256.37 (the equivalent of EUR 962.52)
14.  By a decision of the Novozavodsky District Court of Chernigiv of 1 April 1999, Mr Grygoriy Arkhitko was reinstated in his post and awarded UAH 6,348.62 in salary arrears. He received UAH 226.17 on 7 February 2000 and UAH 99.64 on 18 August 2000. However, the judgment remains to a large extent unenforced, the outstanding debt being UAH 6,022.81 (the equivalent of EUR 926.59).
15.  By a decision of the Ivankivsky District Court of the Kiev Region of 10 June 1999, Mr Volodymyr Litskevich was awarded UAH 6,444.45 in salary arrears. He received UAH 61.12 on 16 November 1999, UAH 171.57 on 8 February 2000 and UAH 101.13 on 18 August 2000. However, the judgment remains largely unenforced, the outstanding debt being UAH 6,110.63 (the equivalent of EUR 940.10).
16.  By a decision of the Novozavodsky District Court of Chernigiv of 16 October 2001, Mr Mykhaylo Tyshchenko was awarded UAH 8,340 (the equivalent of EUR 1,283.08) in salary arrears. The judgment remains unenforced.
17.  By a letter of 17 June 1999, the Ministry of Energy informed Mr Grygoriy Ganushevych that the delay in the payment of salary arrears was due to the debtor company’s difficult economic situation, caused by the failure of third parties to pay their debts to the company. According to the Ministry, the company’s situation required a solution at State level.
18.  By a letter of 5 May 2001, the same Ministry informed Mr Grygoriy Ganushevych that, despite its efforts, the debtor company’s economic situation had not improved. The Ministry mentioned that the Ministry for Emergencies and the Protection of the Population from the Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe[1] (“the Ministry for Emergencies”) was Atomspetsbud’s largest debtor. The Ministry informed the applicant that the company’s management had asked it to decide on the expediency of the company’s continued existence.
19.  At the end of 2001 the sixth, seventh and ninth applicants instituted separate proceedings in the Pechersky District Court of Kiev against the Ukrainian President, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Justice, seeking compensation for the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage caused by the non-enforcement of the judicial decisions in their favour. In three separate decisions of 29 January 2002, that court found against the applicants, stating that, in the event of non-enforcement, the applicants had the option of lodging the appropriate claims for damages against the State Bailiffs’ Service, rather than the above defendants, whose responsibility for the non-enforcement had not been proved by the claimants. The applicants did not appeal against those decisions under the ordinary appeal procedure or on points of law.
20.  In their joint letter of 31 October 2002 to the Ukrainian Prime Minister, all the applicants gave notice that they had lodged applications with the European Court of Human Rights and proposed a friendly settlement of the matter. They requested full enforcement of the decisions and compensation for damage ranging from UAH 20,000 to 50,000 each.
21.  In reply, the Agent of the Government informed the applicants that friendly-settlement proceedings could only be started following the Court’s admissibility decision. She further informed the applicants of the large number of writs of execution pending against the debtor company, amounting to UAH 3,849,312[2]. However, enforcement of the judgments through the seizure of property required special authorisation from the Ministry for Emergencies, since the debtor company’s property was located within the Chernobyl area, which was contaminated by radiation. No such authorisation was granted.
22.  By an order of the Ministry of Energy dated 27 June 2002, the debtor company was liquidated and a liquidation commission established.
23.  As a result, between 7 October 2002 and 9 July 2003 the State Bailiffs’ Service terminated the enforcement proceedings in the applicants’ cases and all the writs of execution were forwarded to the liquidation commission as creditors’ claims. The liquidation proceedings are still pending.